The admirable Russ Chandler has kindly asked me to return to the scene of my desperately late arrival last time. Four and a half hours from Bristol was more than I had been expecting, but I shall make a suitably generous further allowance this time. Hope to see some of you there.

I won't make any rash promises, but if anyone who's coming has any particular requests I will both do my best and be grateful for a bit of warning. (Send me a personal message if you'd prefer.)

I'm thinking of not bringing a keyboard this time, i.e. doing the whole thing on guitar, which may mean I'll have a go at transferring across one or two of the more usually piano-type things, just to keep it interesting. Ish.

None of the above, really, Gerry. You could say - if you liked - that all that getting up and sitting down between songs just gets teejus given the oldness of the codger. (Now that's a reference to a long-unrecalled record that made a great impression on me as a tad when heard on the wireless.) And anyway it's not that new an angle, surely, is it?!

None of the above, really, Gerry. You could say - if you liked - that all that getting up and sitting down between songs just gets teejus given the oldness of the codger. (Now that's a reference to a long-unrecalled record that made a great impression on me as a tad when heard on the wireless.)

Ah! Now there's another memory dredged up from the depths. Here's another old codger who remembers it. I assume the record you mean, Pete, is the one that goes (in part) like this:

Hound dawg howlin', so forlorn He's the laziest dawg that ever was born He's howling 'cause he's settin' on a thorn Just too doggone tired to move over...

And the reason I recall it is that my father had it on a 78. I can still recite the lyrics almost word-perfect (one of those childhood memories that stay with you). For all I know my mother may still have it stashed away somewhere.

The title: Life gets (gits?) teejus, don't it? The artist, I can't remember.

Yes, it's the Peter Lind Hayes version I remember hearing. I remember liking the way the last line of each verse doesn't rhyme with anything although the ear kind of expects it to. And I liked the sound of his voice too - although the Carson Robison version, which I don't recall ever hearing before (also on YouTube), is much better performed IMO, despite the odd almost-classical-sounding fiddle.

....... I remember liking the way the last line of each verse doesn't rhyme with anything although the ear kind of expects it to. ......

Many older talking blues songs I know of work in that way. Johnny Cash's A Boy Named Sue and Bob Dylan's, Woody Guthrie influenced, Talking World War III Blues are two rather good examples that spring readily to mind.

Whilst I reckon this thread has been hi-jacked enough already, may I put in a word for Loudon Wainwright's 'Talkin New Bob Dylan' on his History album? At one point, LW was touted as the new Bob Dylan, and he even won a couple of sound-alike contests. Huh, I bet Bob hasn't got as many famous kids as Loudon has!